Female, Younger, Poorer Voters Easily Affected by Fake News: Research|假新聞難查證 研究:女性.年輕.低收入易受影響

A professor at the graduate institute of journalism at National Taiwan University conducted a research to answer the question of whether fake news really affects elections. He found out that, women, younger demographic and those who with lower income have less capabilities of identifying fake news. Some scholars also believe the voters who clear favor a political party tend to not be affected, whereas those who are undecided is affected more easily. It's not easy to verify the source of fake news, but if an administration doesn't properly moderate their control on the matter, the fight against fake news could become the government's excuse to limit freedom of the press.


An online source recently reported that 2 million tons of pomelo were thrown into a reservoir. The new caused quite a stir among the public, and many believe it's fake and has affected the upcoming legislative by-election. When asked about the possible effect of fake news on voting outcome, the public remains divided on the matter.

Many believe in what they see (in the media) and whatever is reported will affect his or her opinion.

I often verify (the news) first, and wait to see what really happened. Everyone has their own take on things, thus it's important to evaluate (different opinions).

Professor Wang Tai-li from the graduate institute of journalism at National Taiwan University conducted a research on the effect of fake news on last year's nine-in-one mayoral election. The results show that female voters are less capable in identifying fake news than male. And the voters' age is proportional to their ability to discern fake news from real ones, the younger voters have a harder time doing that. Also, 61 percent of the voters with a monthly income of NT$ 50,000 to NT$ 100,000 can properly identify fake news, and only 37 percent of the voters with less than NT$ 10,000 in monthly income are capable of doing so.

Those who identify strongly with one party are not affected by outside information. Those who don't identify with one party, or those who are undecided are more likely to be affected by political news.

In order to curb the spreading of fake news, the Tsai Ing-wen administration has asked all government department to clear up their news sources. It also amended laws to implement severe punishment for the spread of fake news. The Executive Yuan has also set up a special team to hold discussion on future amendment.

We are not putting a new law in place, (spreading fake news) is already illegal under our current law, and we'll amend the laws to implement more severe punishment.

However, some scholars have warned the administration that it is difficult to verify if a news is indeed fake. And if the administration doesn't properly manage its effort to curb fake news, it could easily end up limiting the freedom of the press.



近日有電子媒體報導，200萬噸文旦倒在水庫裡，引發假新聞爭議，不少人認為，衝擊到立委補選選情，假新聞是不是真的會影響選民投票行為，民眾看法兩極。

民眾表示：「常常會看到很多就是什麼，發生什麼事情啊，然後就會影響到，我覺得就是看他的，就是對他的想法。」

民眾表示：「應該還是會先查證一下，看實際上的狀況是怎麼樣吧，因為他每個人的想法都不一樣嘛，還是會多做評估啊。」

台大新研所教授王泰俐，針對去年縣市長選舉，辨識假新聞的研究調查發現，女性選民，辨別假新聞能力，比男性差，而年齡與假新聞辨識度，則呈正比關係，越年輕的選民，愈不容易判斷新聞真偽。另外，以收入來看，月收入5到10萬的選民中，有高達六成一，可判斷新聞真偽，月入一萬元以下，只有三成七。

世新大學兼任客座教授 彭懷恩表示：「強烈政黨認同的這些人呢，是不會受這個外來資訊的影響的，的確是有比較弱的政黨認同或者是中間選民，他們會是受政治訊息的影響。」

為防堵假新聞，府院總動員。蔡總統日前親自督軍，要求各部會積極迅速澄清，更宣示修法重罰，行政院更成立「行政院防制假訊息危害工作小組」討論修法。

行政院發言人 Kolas Yotaka表示：「我們現在並不是另訂新法或是專法，現在法律已經明訂的違法行為，加重他的刑責或罰則。」

不過學者警告，假新聞查證不易，用國家機器管制、防堵，尺度沒拿捏好，恐淪為打擊新聞與言論自由的工具。